How do you ensure consistency and standardization of Gemba walks across different departments and locations?

Para garantir a consistência e a padronização das caminhadas do Gemba em diferentes departamentos e locais, é fundamental estabelecer um conjunto claro de diretrizes e objetivos para as caminhadas. Isso inclui a definição de um cronograma regular, treinamento padronizado para todos os participantes sobre a metodologia do Gemba e a importância da observação direta. Além disso, a implementação de checklists específicos pode ajudar a garantir que todos os aspectos relevantes sejam abordados. A coleta e análise de feedback após cada caminhada permitirão ajustes contínuos e melhorias na abordagem.

Quando se vai ao chão de fábrica para analisar um processo, precisamos ter definido qual o objetivo desta análise e delimitar o processo. Quando sabemos o que estamos procurando (qual problema deve ser resolvido) e em qual etapa do processo (delimitar o escopo), teremos uma change maior de exito no Gembawalking. Tendo esta filosofia de trabalho, iniciamos a garantia de que uma analise no processo será feita de forma "igual" em todos os departamentos da empresa.

Before Gemba walks, ensure Quality standards are adhered, identify process inefficiency, develop standardised checklist, create a checklist and frequency of Gemba walks!

Before you start your Gemba walks, you need to define your purpose and scope clearly. What are you trying to achieve with your Gemba walks? What are the key processes, metrics, and outcomes that you want to observe and improve? How often and how long will you conduct your Gemba walks? Who will participate and what are their roles and responsibilities? These questions will help you to set the expectations and objectives for your Gemba walks, and communicate them to the relevant stakeholders.

The checklist is undoubtedly a simple and useful tool to help us remember the main points. However, to make Gemba walks more effective and less tedious, I recommend planning visits based on the most relevant problems linked to the company’s KPIs. Studying the topics in advance and familiarizing yourself with the context makes all the difference. Additionally, listening to the perspectives of other areas before the visit helps enrich the analysis and provides a more strategic and well-founded approach, alongside your personal experience.

To ensure consistency and standardization of your Gemba walks, you need to use a standard checklist and format for your observations, questions, and feedback. A checklist will help you to focus on the critical aspects of the work process, such as safety, quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. A format will help you to structure your Gemba walk report, such as using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, or the Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) technique. You can also use a template or a software tool to record and share your findings and actions.

Another key factor for ensuring consistency and standardization of your Gemba walks is to train and coach your Gemba walk leaders. These are the people who will lead and facilitate the Gemba walks, such as managers, supervisors, or quality improvement specialists. They need to have the knowledge, skills, and attitude to conduct effective Gemba walks, such as understanding the work process, asking open-ended and respectful questions, listening actively and empathetically, providing constructive feedback, and encouraging improvement ideas. You can provide them with training sessions, coaching sessions, or shadowing opportunities to develop their competencies and confidence.

Provide training for leaders and team members participating in Gemba walks to align their understanding of objectives and techniques.

One of the benefits of conducting consistent and standardized Gemba walks is that they can help you to align your work processes with your quality standards, such as ISO 9001. ISO 9001 is a widely recognized standard for quality management systems, which requires you to plan, implement, monitor, and improve your processes to meet customer and regulatory requirements. By using Gemba walks, you can check if your processes are following the ISO 9001 requirements, such as documentation, control, measurement, analysis, improvement, and customer satisfaction. You can also use Gemba walks to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement, and to verify the effectiveness of your corrective and preventive actions.

Finally, to ensure consistency and standardization of your Gemba walks, you need to benchmark and share your Gemba walk results across different departments and locations. Benchmarking will help you to compare your performance against your own goals, or against the best practices of other departments or organizations. Sharing will help you to learn from each other, to spread the good practices, and to collaborate on improvement projects. You can use various methods to benchmark and share your Gemba walk results, such as dashboards, reports, meetings, newsletters, or webinars.